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Education in Sweden

From the age of six, every child has equal access to free education in Sweden. The Swedish school system is regulated through the Education Act, which ensures a safe and friendly environment for students. The act mandates nine years of school attendance for all children from the year they turn seven.

Education in Sweden

From the age of six, every child has equal access to free education in Sweden. The Swedish school system is regulated through the Education Act, which ensures a safe and friendly environment for students. The act mandates nine years of school attendance for all children from the year they turn seven.

Pre-school

In Sweden, förskola (pre-school) is provided by municipalities for children ages one to five. The amount of municipal subsidy for pre-school depends on the child’s age and whether the parents work, study, are unemployed or on parental leave for other children.

Swedish pre-school emphasises the importance of play in a child’s development, with a curriculum aiming to ensure children’s individual needs and interests. Gender-aware education is increasingly common, striving to provide children with the same opportunities in life regardless of gender.

A year before the first year

All children are guaranteed a place in a one-year förskoleklass (‘pre-school year’) starting in the fall term of the year they turn six until they start compulsory schooling.

This year is designed to stimulate each child’s development and learning, and provide a platform for their future schooling. Although förskoleklass is non-compulsory, almost all children in Sweden attend it.

Compulsory schooling

Swedish compulsory schooling consists of three stages: lågstadiet (years 1–3), followed by mellanstadiet (years 4–6) and then högstadiet (years 7–9). Children between ages 6 and 13 are also offered out-of-school care before and after school hours.

Compulsory education also includes sameskolor (Sami schools) for children of the indigenous Sami people.

Upper secondary school

Gymnasium (upper secondary school or high school, years 10–12) is optional. There are 18 regular national programmes of 3 years to choose from, 6 of which are preparatory for higher education such as university, and 12 of which are vocational.

While entrance requirements vary between programmes, all of them demand students to have passing grades in Swedish, English and mathematics from their final year of compulsory schooling.

In 2014, 13 per cent of Swedish 9-year students did not have the grades to qualify for a national programme; however, instead of national programmes, these students have five so-called introductory programmes to choose from. From these introductory programmes, students can then move on to a national programme.

There are also upper secondary schools for people with intellectual disabilities as well as programme variations targeting for example athletes.

In 2014, roughly 88 per cent of upper secondary students received a leaving qualification (diploma).

FIVE GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES

The Swedish Schools Inspectorate oversees and examines the quality of schools across the country through regular inspections. The inspectorate monitors compliance with the Education Act.

The National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools provides children, young people and adults with disabilities with the same opportunities for development and education that every­one in society is entitled to.

The Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education analyses labour market demands for workforce education, decides what programmes are to be included in higher vocational education and allocates public funding to education providers. The agency also assesses and inspects the quality and results of this education.

Benchmarking internationally

The quality of Swedish education has been keenly debated over the past decade, following declining results among Swedish students in international comparisons. Sweden has moved to improve performances and to raise the status of the teaching profession for long-term benefits.

International studies such as Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) have indicated a deteriorating performance among Swedish children in recent years.

Most recently, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which is behind the PISA assessment, followed up on the trends in May 2015 with a detailed review of Sweden’s educational quality.

The study, done on the request of the Swedish Government, confirms that Sweden needs to improve the quality of education and in particular raise the performance level of students in reading, math and science. This can be seen in light of Sweden investing a larger share of its GDP on education (6.8 per cent) compared with the OECD average (5.6 per cent) in 2014.

Recent reforms

The relevance of the PISA studies has been questioned by educators and policy makers both in Sweden and abroad. Critics of the standardised tests argue that the studies are too focused on math and science, and altogether exclude areas of education that stimulate personal growth, morality and creativity.

Nevertheless, while the discussion between critics and defenders of PISA continues, the Swedish Government is looking for ways to improve the education system. It has looked particularly at neighbours Finland but also at South Korea, where teachers’ salaries are higher, and at the Netherlands, where class sizes are typically smaller.

Several reforms have been implemented over the last few years, aimed at improving student results and raising the status of the teaching profession:

New education act

The new Swedish Education Act of 2011 contains basic principles and provisions for compulsory and further education, pre-school, pre-school year, out-of-school care and adult education. It promotes greater oversight, freedom of choice, and student safety and security.

New curricula

New consolidated curricula for compulsory schools for all students, Sami schools, special schools and upper secondary schools came into force 1 July 2011. The curricula contain new general goals, guide­lines and syllabuses. The pre-school curriculum includes clearer goals for children’s linguistic and communicative develop­ment and for science and technology. Mandatory national subject tests are held in years 3, 6 and 9 of compulsory school to assess student prog­ress. There are also new qualification requirements for areas including upper secondary school studies.

New grading system

The old Swedish system with four grades from Pass with Special Distinction (MVG) down to Did Not Pass (IG) was replaced by a new grading scale with six grades from A to F in 2011. A to E are passing grades, with F as a failing grade. Grades are assigned starting in year 6. The new grading system is very similar to the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS), the standard grading system for higher education in Europé.

Teacher certification

As of 1 December 2013, professional certification is required for school and pre-school teachers on permanent contracts. The decision, a milestone in Swedish education policy, aims to raise the status of the teaching profession, support professional development and thus increase quality in education.

Photo: Elisabeth Edén/ imagebank.sweden.se

IT – important to learning

Under the curriculum for compulsory education, schools are responsible for ensuring that every student attending compulsory school is able to use modern technology as a tool in searching for knowledge, communication, creativity and learning. There is a similar curriculum for upper secondary schools.

For mellanstadiet (years 4–6), 17 per cent of students have access to their own computer at school and 71 per cent have access to their own computer at home. For students at högstadiet (years 7–9), 34 per cent have access at school and 87 per cent at home. At upper secondary level (year 10–12), 94 per cent of students have access to their own computer either at school or at home.

In addition, a large number of students are also users of smart phones and tablets. Around 94 per cent of all school­children in Sweden say they have access to internet at school.

Vittra Södermalm in central Stockholm is one of many charter schools in the Swedish capital. Charter schools attract around a fourth of all Sweden’s upper secondary students today.

Photo: Kim Vendt/Rosan Bosch Studio

Charter schools

The number of independent schools with public funding, so-called charter schools, is growing in Sweden. Following a law change in the 1990s, parents and their children can choose among tuition-free schools, whether municipal or private.

Although private schools have been in existence for as long as there has been compulsory education in Sweden, they were not a wide-spread competitive alternative to municipal schools until the 1992 law provided them with public funding.

These publicly funded non-municipal schools are called friskola (charter school) to differentiate them from tuition-based private schools (of which there are only a handful left in Sweden).

Same rules apply

In Sweden, charter schools must be approved by the Schools Inspectorate and follow the national curricula and sylla­buses, just like regular municipal schools.

In 2014, around 17 per cent of compulsory schools and 50 per cent of upper secondary schools were charter schools and they attracted close to 14 per cent of all compulsory school students and 26 per cent of all upper secondary school students.

Sweden has its share of scepticism about running schools for profit. Fears include that profits will take precedence over quality. Advocates of independent schools, on the other hand, note the many positive results found in statistical surveys. One is that parents with children who attend independent schools are more satisfied than those with children in municipal schools.

Emelie Asplund /imagebank.sweden.se

Children’s rights

The Swedish Education Act, along with the Swedish Discrimination Act, strives to protect children and students from discrimination and degrading treatment. In essence, the principals of pre-schools, schools and adult education programmes are responsible for enforcing prohibitions against discrimination and degrading behaviour, and for promoting equal treatment.

In 2006, Sweden appointed its first Child and School Student Representative, who is tasked with providing information about the discrimination act, helping schools prevent bullying, overseeing schools’ efforts and representing students who have been bullied. The representative is a part of the Swedish Schools Inspectorate, the government agency tasked with school inspections.

All students have access to a school doctor, school nurse, psychologist and school welfare officer at no cost.